(1913) The oldest sound films. Jack's joke. Edison's Kinetophone. [4k, 60fps, colorized]

Try the ultimate tool to upscale the quality of vintage video to 4K: tinyurl.com/AIu... Edison’s film company had been experimenting with sound since the very beginning and, while their sound system was not released before Gaumont’s, they were confident that it would soon dominate. The January 1913 unveiling of the Kinetophone was big news in the industry.
The technology bellyflopped, losing its luster within weeks and a 1914 fire destroying the masters was the final nail in the coffin.
Jack's joke is one of the few surviving examples of the Kinetophone technology.
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[@XIXbacktolife]

Try the ultimate tool to upscale the quality of vintage video to 4K:tinyurl.com/AIupscaler Learn more about the power of VideoProc Converter AI: tinyurl.com/AIupscaler 1, AI-upscale your old archives to 4K 60/50FPS or beyond, ideal for Palette colorized footage, vintage home movie videos, DV videos, old KZbin videos, super 8 film, DVDs, low-res recordings, etc. 2, Upscale AI generated images(from MidJourney, DALL-E, Leonardo, etc.) for printing and playing on UHD TV’s purpose. 3, Offer extra AI tools(Frame Interpolation and Motion Stabilization), convert, DVD digitizing, edit, compress, and screen record at the same software.

[@Легендапротопильяпирожок]

Да кстати поздравь сегодня у моей Пра Пра бабушки Они день рождения было ей сегодня исполнилось 111 лет и она тоже родилась в 1913 году

[@Легендапротопильяпирожок]

Напиши в комент пж🙏🙏🙏

[@kurtb8474]

110 years ago. And here we are today watching it on a forum that they couldn't even imagine would exist back then.

[@aftabgill1648]

Except for time travellers, I guess.

[@rsyungul]

The young man who is the butt of Jack's joke is a young Arthur Houseman, who played the perennial drunk in many Laurel and Hardy films of the 1930s.

[@URangryX]

NICE reference, Sir! I'll make sure to look that up! Thank you.

[@ming60640]

Yes! He was also an excellent minor supporting character in the classic silent film SUNRISE. (“The obtrusive gentleman” in the barber shop scene).

[@krisstopher8259]

That room was pretty contemporary back then. Almost 111 years ago, just one year after the titanic disaster. Crazy

[@newmankidman5763]

Your sentence is grammatically incorrect and easily to be misunderstood. However, after reading it a couple of times, one is able to discern what you mean.

[@NachaBeez]

@@newmankidman5763your first sentence is also grammatically incorrect. Don’t throw stones if you live in a glass house. In addition, the original commenter is perfectly comprehensible. This isn’t a formal setting, and formal writing isn’t-and shouldn’t be-required.

[@newmankidman5763]

​@@NachaBeez, my first sentence is not grammatically incorrect. You probably think that I should have written "easy to misunderstand", which would be the correct form if I meant to say "without difficulty". However, what I did mean to say, and did say is "and without doubt to be misunderstood".

[@faenethlorhalien]

@@newmankidman5763 It is grammatically incorrect. It's not "easily to be misunderstood" but either "easy to be misunderstood", using an adjective or "easily misunderstood". Check your grammar and don't correct other people's if yours is lacking.

[@Embracing01]

A planned sinking that went horribly wrong IMO, insurance scam and getting rid of the 3 men opposed of the federal reserve act which was passed in Dec 1913 (Astor, Guggenheim and Straus) which give the American central bank the power to create money from nothing in order to fund WW1.

[@AWSVids]

Acting in cinema has changed so much. It was so theatrical at first, as actors were only used to the stage at that time and just applied stage acting techniques to film. Took decades to develop the more subtle, naturalistic style of film-acting that doesn't require you to shout in order for the cheap seats to hear you, and you can just focus on believable character/emotion of the moment. I feel like it wasn't really until the 60s or 70s that film acting became what it is today.

[@skyworm8006]

The best actors today are all theatre-trained though. That's always been the case. They can do naturalistic better than anyone too. I get what you mean though.

[@ConanObrien22]

I think Marlon Brando did it first in A Streetcar Named Desire. He was one of the first realism actors in cinema.

[@paddotk]

That's what I thought of, they act in a theater play-kinda way.

[@aftabgill1648]

Damn.. did u really need to give that long explanation about something that is so obvious to everybody..?

[@antoinepetrov]

Let's just mention that there was much more theatricality in real life at that time - rituals, customs and etiquette were much more respected back then

[@mikehaas7]

Some of you may not realize how these were made. This was made when there were no microphones to use in the recording process - you had to gather the actors beforehand and have them speak loudly into an acoustic horn that drove the cutting stylus and pre-record their dialogue. Then, the actors had to lip sync to the recording, which itself could be played back reasonably loud on set while being filmed. I've seen a few of these where the lip-syncing wasn't very good. This particular film is exceptional.

[@dunweyweydum]

Thanks for sharing that process!

[@ldavid2528]

That's really interesting! Thank you for explaining. 😊

[@dougfowler1368]

Fascinating, thanks.

[@MylesSmith-q4y]

Microphones have been around since at least the 1870s around the time of telephones because telephones wouldn't of worked without microphones although they still weren't widely used then.

[@mikehaas7]

@@MylesSmith-q4y Telephones didn't use microphones. The part of the phone you spoke into in the late 1800's was nothing like the microphones that came to be built in the 1920s. True, they converted the sound of the user into electronic signals that were then able to be reassembled on the end of the person receiving the call, but no, the microphones built for radio work on a totally different principle. This is the main reason records were recorded acoustically, with a large "speaking horn." Electrically produced records, beginning in 1925, owe that process to the inventions which came to be built as a result of radio. Although Marconi's radio was sending morse code via "Continuous Wave," or CW in the late 1890s, the first voice transmissions didn't occur until 1906. In fact, Reginald Fessenden (who sent the first voice transmissions) and Lee DeForrest both adapted a telephone mouthpiece in their early voice transmissions, but they worked rather poorly. Because of this, the modern concept of a microphone was invented in the late teens to overcome the limitations of the telephone mouthpiece in transmitting voice.

[@GLC2013]

The handsome young man playing "Jack" was born in 1878 - two years after the telephone was invented. When he was 10 years old, Jack the Ripper was making headlines around the world. When he was 23, Queen Victoria died. When he was 24, the Wright brothers successfully tested the very first airplane. When he was 28, San Francisco was destroyed by quake and fire. When he was 36, WWI broke out in Europe. When he was 42, Prohibition started.

[@Dusty-y6b]

I think that would be 1888. That’s when Jack the Ripper was around.

[@GLC2013]

@@Dusty-y6b Correct, especially August-November of that year.

[@TheStickCollector]

Miracle this is 100 years old. Really shows our ingenuity over the past century or 2

[@ikercapi]

110 years old. 👍

[@newmankidman5763]

110

[@Pedantic1953]

@@ikercapiafter the first 90 it doesn’t really matter eh?

[@Route-kq8xd]

People were still heavily living in the middle ages before 1890. No toilet paper, barbers were dentists, etc.

[@crusiethmaximuss]

This feels like time travel... This is incredible!!! Probably the most impressive AI enhanced footage I have ever seen...

[@H-Vox]

It's one of the most fascinating things I've had the privilege of watching

[@crusiethmaximuss]

@@H-Vox Same here...

[@SebTheMusician]

I seriously had no idea that there were any movies that had sound back then! Mind blown...

[@seandelap8587]

This is truly extraordinary great quality

[@lydialarina]

I never thought there were talkies before WWI! Thank you so much for sharing this gem with the world❤

[@Justaguy-d3eWr]

Ok

[@Route-kq8xd]

The Jazz Singer came out in 1927.

[@Chipper6811]

Amazing to see how far we have come. This had to be mind-blowing for people to see, when the majority of people were still using photographs and gramophone. The quality is well done.

[@miggy3735]

Thanks for the short clip. I was under the impression that the first talking came out in 1927 with “The Jazz Singer.” It’s a shame that Edison’s Kinetophone didn’t survive. It would have been nice to hear some of the silent era actors speak that we never had the chance to hear.

[@Justaguy-d3eWr]

That Charlie guy was until 1977 Charlie Chaplin you can still hear his voice

[@JayKarpwick]

Edison's Kinetophone turned out to be cumbersome and impractical. As others with much more knowledge than I've got have posted, it required a sound-recording machine suspended over the sound stage, a massive sound horn to focus the actors' voices, and a pulley system to synchronize the camera and sound-recorder. The invention of electrical recording (ca. 1925) ushered in microphones, amplifiers, and sound tracks printed directly on film.

[@NeilHall]

Incredible to think this is just a year after the Titanic sank.

[@juniorcj82]

The aunt's laugh at 5:44 just makes it. 😂

[@GLC2013]

This was just wonderful! I read that Edison experimented with sound films early on, but assumed the audio quality would be very poor Victrola-sound. This audio was amazingly high fidelity, I can't imagine how they did it since I read the earliest ELECTRICALLY recorded phonograph record did not appear until 1925. The actors here were obviously told to speak loudly as possible to compensate for the early sound recording system but even so it's amazing. The mannerisms of the young people in 1913 reminds me so much of the people of the early '30s. And how fascinating to see the earliest signs of change from the old world - the young woman already has a headband with feather and simplified, shortened dress--the first hints of the 1920s. The older woman still looks like she stepped right out of the Victorian era with Gibson girl hair and the full dress. That room certainly was beautiful. Astounding this survived for 110 years!!! The young actors here would have been retirement age around 1953. What changes they saw in their lives!

[@URangryX]

SO Theatrical...fixed cameras, hitting marks, elevated and projected voices, over-exaggerated body movements and posturing....they were simply recording stage productions in the beginning, but this is a GREAT contribution to our knowledge of film history! Thank you for uploading this!

[@datatwo7405]

Just think on how much was invented and worked out in terms of production for television and movies from that time onward. Even on through the 60s, 70s. Unfortunately, when it comes to television today, so much has degenerated into crassness its unwatchable. But the concepts of filming for tv has so much to develop, it boggles the mind.

[@rvvanlife]

I wonder what regular conversation sounded like at that time,

[@kingjoe3rd]

@@rvvanlife like they do now. There are a few recordings out there that demonstrate this.

[@uslines]

Great vaudeville skit.

[@jamesbernsen3516]

I suspect the bit with everyone having to talk loud might have been a clever adaptation to the limitation of the microphones. I don't see them in the picture, so they're probably hidden behind the chair, but being so primitive, they probably didn't pick up well if you weren't talking so loud.

[@johnathandavis3693]

It was likely a mechanical phonograph -just a horn with a stylus cutting a groove in a celluloid record -no amplifiers back then...

[@nameprivate2194]

No, no microphones there, just the acoustics of the theatre-auditorium and the (stage-)actors & -actresses speaking loudly yet clearly, a skill stage-actors/-actresses had to master, until later film, video, microphones, et al changed all that.

[@nameprivate2194]

​​​​@@johnathandavis3693 No, no, _film_ was made of celluloid. Audio records were made of _vinyl._ The earliest vinyl records were thick and fragile. If dropped, they'd shatter into pieces like dropped porcelain or glass. Later, LP (Long Playing, @33⅓ RPM) records were much more resistant to breakage by being thinner, lighter, and more flexible to bend before breaking. _Vinyl records,_ those were. _See also:_ Audio _wax cylinders,_ the original recorded audio medium, before vinyl records.

[@Basauri_48970]

You don't see them because they were not there. The sound at this time could only be pre-recorded in a studio because of the mic quality back then. The actors you see in the video were lip-syncing to the recording, not speaking live.

[@ChrisMezzolesta]

@@Basauri_48970 There were no microphones, only an acoustic Edison recording phonograph with a supersized recording horn suspended above the stage to catch the audio coming from the stage. This can be seen at the top of the frame in a few of the shorts, looks like a batwing, it's the very bottom of the horn. See the Kinetophone DVD for proof of this - it is not lip-synced.

[@plastique45]

I'd rather watch this than the Marvels.

[@eyesofisabelofficial]

What's more astonishing is that the valve amplifier is still around 10 years away in their future, so any audience in 1913 would still need a giant gramophone trumpet in the theatre to hear any of this in the first place.

[@Greenpoloboy3]

110 Years old, 1 year before the world went mad. Wish we had more recordings with sound from this time and prior.

[@GLC2013]

Exactly what I was thinking! Glad we have some record of pre-Jamal America.

[@Greenpoloboy3]

@@GLC2013 Inventions that record sound, and video and pictures have got to be some of the best investions ever made

[@VeronicaMowery]

Wonderful! Love how they have to shout, to get the sound picked up.

[@Lord_Kratos69]

Back than this must be mindblowing

[@erreemebeerreemebe8178]

Desconocía absolutamente la existencia de películas sonoras anteriores a los años treinta, así que mi reacción ha sido de asombro e incredulidad y más aún al verla en color y la velocidad de reproducción corregida. Buen trabajo, gracias.

[@quandrixtwincaster5738]

Feels insane to see people who were born in the 1800's.

[@BlameThande]

Thanks for all your work on finding and restoring curiosities like this!

[@WeirdExplorer]

They really should bring back taking a bow at the end of movies.

[@dumitriudaniela]

wowwwww! this is amazing. It feels weird but so real. The way they shout their actig parts is also rather sweet, they were so theatrical. I never knew such films existed. I thought the oldest ones are from 1929 when the first musical movie was made. Really stunning, its like stepping back in time. I really loved the decor and ladies dresses.

[@rongendron8705]

You forgot "The Jazz Singer" 1927, with Al Jolson! Doug Fairbanks experimented with 'sound' pictures, before that, but not full "talkies'!

[@dumitriudaniela]

@@rongendron8705 still, theres a huge difference between 1927 and 1913, isnt it? dresses were different, the way they talk was different, maybe due to the WWI that started in 1914. Everything changed after the war and elegance was never at the same level.

[@heatherallingham7120]

Wow, a talkie from 110 years ago! Such a beautiful set and costumes, and the blonde lady's gown was breathtaking

[@Rocket_Man232]

🔔 YOU DO COLORIZATION BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE THAT I'VE EVER SEEN. VERY, VERY WELL DONE! 👍

[@datatwo7405]

Abstitutely!

[@jetnipatteeravithayapinyo2468]

Imagine having to stand there for 6 and a half minutes, staring into the barrel of the kinetoscope. It's just like VR, but ya gotta bend down the whole time

[@pastasauce99]

I like that they already have to scream for the audio recorder and get even louder for the skit.😅

[@juniorcj82]

A talkie from 1913?!?!

[@thudor1]

Wow! This is 110 years old!! Came out the year 3 of my grandparents were born.

[@ayrisgrapes]

Это просто невероятно. Я видела пару десятков фильмов 1910-х, например Кабинет доктора Калигари, но они были немыми и плохого качества. А тут - погружение в ту эпоху. Надеюсь благодаря нейронным сетям качество фильмов начала века будет улучшено

[@thefool2007]

Incredible piece of cinema history. Just wow.

[@SamanthaN92]

This is incredible!! 💕I didnt know sound recordings were this good back in 1913. At first I thought it was AI 😂

[@SuperFinGuy]

Fantastic! And that iron work in background... So iconic of the time.

[@hanschristianbrando5588]

I feel like I'm watching Masterpiece Theater.

[@sandman5211]

Is he wearing Balmoral or Chelsea boots? Absolutely fantastic

[@MrEjidorie]

I cannot believe that this movie with sound was produced 110 years ago, and no actors and actresses have passed away a long time ago. Thanks to colorization, however, it seems that this film was produced only a few decades ago.

[@kaykiekid]

Please keep going with your technology to improve all of these movies from 100 years ago. This one is incredibly clear, clean, and sharp. Amazing work! 😊❤

[@emilys3458]

Simply Wonderful. I always wondered what the acting on Broadway may have been like during this era...I imagine this was pretty much how it may have been....

[@dave3657]

I can just imagine the director telling the actors to speak loud and clear so the sound recorder can pick it up. What a great restored film.

[@oswaldmosley6179]

1913 was a very unlucky year, the beginning of the end for the west. This is a great film and restauration.

[@Calc_Ulator]

The Fed. The 16th. Preplanning War.

[@viktorgadany7595]

I had 2 grandfathers born in 1898 and 1900.

[@aftabgill1648]

Everybody alive today had someone born in the 19th century and earlier that they can thank their lineage for.

[@clairwaucaush7225]

Knowing Edison's work in film and how old this short is...Being so clear now and darn perfect looking...it's almost creepy!!

[@jamesbernsen3516]

The problem with old footage is the speed and the shakiness of the camera. The new technology cleans that up well. Would be nice to see the pre-restored version side-by-side.

[@YodatheHobbit]

Wow, they all REALLY like sitting in that chair. 👀

[@psychedelicpython]

Perhaps everyone has that one friend who like Jack, a practical joker.😁

[@kyleebrock]

YOU HAVE TO YELL INTO THE MICROPHONE 🎙️ THIS GENERATION STILL TALKS IN CAPS!

[@patrickvalentino600]

What's really fascinating is how this film subtly explored the eternal question of whether this dress is gold or blue, a topic the internet wouldn't get to for another century.

[@rongendron8705]

I'm 78 & my father worked for the Edison Co. starting in 1929 at age 15! He was present when Thomas Edison died in 1931 & his boss asked all of the employees to have "one minute of silence" for this great man! Edison should be considered "The Father of the 20th Century", because w/o his amazing inventions, we might still be using gas lamps or sitting in the dark at night! ( This video proved his genius!)

[@kit-ekat8139]

still funny 110 years later 🤣

[@MahdavikiaPL]

That's true!! Ridicolous

[@Fishycheese99]

“Well why don’t you marry this girl??” “Well I would! But she says I’m too short!” Proof women have been judging men by height for CENTURIES.

[@44032]

horizontally, too.

[@Bigbadwhitecracker]

Light years ahead of Vitaphone. Really remarkable.

[@KenLieck]

I'm not sure what gets to me more -- the roaring staticky noise in between the spoken lines in earlier posted versions of this short, or the eerie dead silence between them in this one!

[@weylguy]

The sound syncing is not quite right in places, but considering the great age of this thing (I wouldn't call it a cinematic masterpiece), it's a fascinating look back into a lost era. Thanks for all your hard work and for sharing it!

[@sanseverything900]

Syncing was a huge problem with Edison's Kinetophone. One of the big reasons it never took off.

[@JayKarpwick]

@@sanseverything900 Yes - the camera and sound player were mechanically synchronized using pulleys. As they way, "what could possibly go wrong?"

[@ming60640]

Thank you for posting! I knew there had been tests but not of this specific - and very early - technology! So fascinating! Love your channel!!

[@RoyFr]

Wow the color looks very good..anyone remember when they colorized that twilight zone episode in the 80's... was a lot of fanfare but did not look like this ..excellent job!

[@jamesmahan284]

1:53 This gentleman setting in the chair also played in the 1930 version of Sunny, made in 1930 His name was Joe Donahue.

[@KillberZomL4D42494]

I'm watching a part of my past that's never been mine.

[@datatwo7405]

LOL, oh you never know! I too feel the same way about numerous different points in time.! ;)

[@maksphoto78]

Anyone got the dialogue for this movie please? Sometimes it's heard to understand what they're saying.

[@Wolfspiderxl]

Remarkable film and sound quality

[@teleaddict23]

When you think you’re watching a period drama, then realise you are watching the real thing.

[@Kevin_40]

the drip is on point

[@Lord9Genesis]

Love the accolades they imagined receiving at the end where everyone bowed.

[@zaftra]

You can clearly see that stage actors went to film and didn't change their way of acting until Louise Brookes and Tracy Spancer.

[@JayKarpwick]

Do you mean Spencer Tracy?

[@mudgebauer]

The 4k color is just wonderful. The technology should be applied to all old black and white films.

[@valerie3955]

Yes! To see them as they actually were, and not some faint shadow of themselves!

[@nerd_in_norway]

@@valerie3955 What are you guys on about??? A lot of black and white films in later years were shot, lighted and planned as black and white. Adding color will ruin their entire work. For example the film noir films of the 1940s and 50s, shot when color film existed but made with gorgeous cinematography where careful creativity went into the perfect lighting, use of lenses etc, for the best possible results. Using a cheap AI software to colorize them decades later is sacrilige and does NOT improve those films in any way. AI and modern people will just randomly guess which colors the clothes, the cars, the buildings are, whereas in the original black and white the colors don't matters. It gives them an etheral quality, leaving more to the imagination of the audience. Try putting this AI technology onto films like Casablanca, Modern Times, Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai, The Bicycle Thieves or later black and white movies like Raging Bull etc, and you'll ruin the hell out of them.

[@valerie3955]

@@nerd_in_norway Color was expensive and they were forced to shoot in two colors instead of reality. It was always second best .

[@pils7611]

I didn’t know this video existed! This is so fascinating!!

[@JayKarpwick]

Film rather than video. Video wasn't practical till the 1950s.

[@catherine59226]

Incredible!

[@Freesurfer688]

I used to like Arthur Housman. It's amazing seeing him here so young. I remember him in several Laurel and Hardy clips.

[@DourFlower]

my brain is folding in on itself imagining that this was 100 years ago when i can so clearly see it all

[@tedrobinson372]

It is unfortunate you edited out the synchronizing cocoanut cup "clop" at the start of the film. It was not an extraneous noise but part of the production to synchronize the sound recording with the film.

[@spencersmith2798]

Incredible.

[@vitalymmaayy]

Like an opera without singing

[@faenethlorhalien]

This is so bizarre. Seeing these people talk, people who are not just all certainly dead already, but most probably all their children also died of old age.

[@leonardofassa2004]

MIRACLE!!!!

[@oldfilmsandstuff4679]

You did a great job remastering the audio. If you don't mind me asking, what tool did you use?

[@kaileyselin8453]

Love the interior of the room.

[@pbasswil]

The free market is a fickle thing. Today it's hard to understand why the public didn't _throw_ its nickels at every 'picture' with sound that arrived in town - it brings the last piece of the puzzle to the art form. But it seems they were happy to read dialog cards for the next 16 years or so...

[@JayKarpwick]

I've had a long interest in old tech, and there were multiple reasons why Edison's system failed. First, it was expensive, requiring two or more people to operate. Second & more important, it was mechanically complex and failure-prone. All the components - camera, projector, sound recorder, sound playback - had to be running at exactly the same speed. Edison's system was based on a single motor using pulleys to drive all components, but it had a tendency to slip which de-synced the picture and sound. The synchronization problem wasn't solved until electrical recording was invented in the mid-1920s, making it possible to print the sound track directly on the film strip itself.

[@pbasswil]

@@JayKarpwick You've shed relevant light on the matter - thanks!

[@JayKarpwick]

@@pbasswil Much appreciated. Cheers.

[@videolabguy]

Ah, that Jack! What a fine jape he has pulled on his friends. I'll just bet he is fine fellow when not having fun.

[@margaretthomas8899]

Very good colorization

[@Springamatul]

Was this really over hundred years wow 🤩

[@cyberlopo2478]

Ces acteurs jouaient presque aussi bien que ceux d'aujourd'hui, et en une seule prise de 6 minutes et 33 secondes. Bravo et merci pour ce document rare ^^

[@joeshmoe9978]

Wow, this is pre-WW1. 🤯

[@TimBarrett-b2u]

I'm surprised that there were silent films before WW1. Makes the past seem more three-dimensional.

[@JayKarpwick]

A quick bit of googling will tell you the first movie camera was built back in *1888* (!). Look up people like Georges Méliès, the Lumière brothers, and others to see what people were able to do only a few years after that.

[@jakrispy5918]

I didn’t look at the credits (I probably should), but is that young woman Margaret Dumant from the Marx Bros. movies?

[@Tony-ci7ys]

Much respect to Your work! Can You also polish the audio?

[@matrox]

05:50 I like at end he falls in the chair and says ....damn!

[@nitratefury]

It would have been nice if you had left the Library of Congress credits on this film. We worked very hard to reconstruct it.

[@RoamingUndertheStars]

Wow ! This is so neat !! 🤩

[@hilarioph]

Kind of reminds me of some stage play but this could be the first sound in movies

[@ravenslaves]

The last year of the gilded age. In a few months from this, the entire world will change.

[@linksjerrylikes]

Amazing!

[@HerbertCordeiro]

This movie image and color it's perfect. Now need updated the voices.

[@Calc_Ulator]

4:58 she choked her line and broke character but hot damn did one helluva recover. I had to loop 3x to be sure, and yup!

[@chrismirwnitis2029]

Almost 100 years ago you see here 2 Young man so alive and today even the dust of them is gone deam after 100 years someone is going to say the say words with me watching us on video deam actually life is just a Bic prank

[@zaftra]

5:45 Looks like the first corpsing on film as well

[@vikinglonghairdediconichai3935]

That's awesome thanks